some of you might have noticed that Keeping the Door posts have virtually halted over the past several weeks. There’s a good reason for this. It’s not that I have suddenly stopped caring about science fiction and fantasy books and news and reviews about them!

However, I have been quite ill recently, and a variety of other factors in my personal life mean I have had to put the brakes on for the time being. I expect to ramp up postings in January 2010. Until then, thanks for reading, and hang on for some cool stuff coming!

Cheers,

Renai LeMay
Editor
Keeping the Door

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In fantasy book fandom, few authors have a reputation amongst hardcore fans as fearsome as the one that rests upon the shoulders of Steven Erikson, co-author of the Malazan Book of the Fallen series.

The Canadian writer, whose real name is Steve Rune Lundin, wields some fearsome credentials. He originally trained as both an archaeologist and anthropologist, and he brings these skills to his novel-writing. His books are billed simultaneously as some of the most challenging and gritty works of fantasy fiction available, but also some of the best, once fans get past the initial reading barriers.

It’s common for fantasy fans to recommend Erikson’s work to each other upon learning that a fellow fan has recently finished reading all of another major author’s work – say, Robert Jordan, George R. R. Martin, Robin Hobb or Janny Wurts.

The assumption is that having made it through a more accessible author, the fan who is the target of the recommendation has now “graduated” to a level where they can read Erikson.

The question that this review will attempt to answer is whether or not Erikson’s reputation is deserved. It’s an appropriate time to examine the topic – Gardens of the Moon, the first book in the Malazan series – recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of its publication – and the last book in the series planned by Erikson – his fellow author Ian Cameron Esslemont also writes in the Malazan world – is on its way.

And just yesterday I finished reading Gardens of the Moon for the first time. So, on with the review.

There is no doubt that Gardens of the Moon is in many ways a challenging book, and readers weaned on the ‘easy reading’ styles of Robert Jordan or Robin Hobb will find it difficult to get past the first few chapters. Erikson consciously avoided many fantasy plot, character and thematic stereotypes when building Gardens of the Moon, and this lends the book a level of difficulty which many will find offputting.

I personally have put Gardens of the Moon down several times over the past few years after reading the first several hundred pages.

And yet, like so many ‘difficult’ books, once the more advanced reader pushes past Gardens’ first few chapters and becomes more comfortable with what Erikson is trying to achieve, it becomes obvious that something rather remarkable and, to be honest, bloody awesome is going on. This is book that enjoys playing with the fantasy tropes that readers have come to expect – in a hilarious, sophisticated and overwhelmingly positive way.

The plot of Gardens of the Moon is complex. The book’s story takes place on a fantasy world where the massive Malazan empire is gradually annexing the territory around it.

War is everywhere, and the Malazans are bringing it to everyone, particularly the free city of Darujhistan, where much of the book is set.

Erikson situates a number of interesting characters in this war-torn world. Sergeant Whiskeyjack and his squad (which includes soldiers, an assassin, a wizard, some explosives experts and more) are part of the legendary Bridgeburners, a section of the armies of the Malazan Empire. Tattersail is a very powerful wizard whose company of mages (also part of the same armies) is virtually wiped out in the first pages of the book.

Then there is an evil puppet, once a sorcerer, a handful of capricious gods and almost-gods (including incarnations of death, chance, and the hounds of hell) who interfere almost constantly in human affairs, a nobleman’s son turned army officer, a thief and a mysterious fat man named Kruppe who seems to be in love with food, wine and all of life’s comforts, an alchemist, an Empress and her tools, and more.

It’s certainly a muddled deck of characters.

And who could forget Anomander Rake, the dark lord of Moon’s Spawn, a mountain which floats across the continent of Genabackis, defying the Malazan Empire at every turn (see image, left)?

When you put all these characters together, with their different gritty histories and motivations (be they petty or grand), the only way you can really describe what comes out of Erikson’s melting pot is “a great big mess”.

No ends are wrapped up neatly in Gardens of the Moon, and just when you think you know a character, their potential, their history and their relationships, Erikson will toss a coin and inject something different into their lives and into his complex narrative.

But what a glorious mess it is.

Gods and almost-gods playing and being played by mortals. Virgin ladies baring breasts to thieves sneaking into their rooms to steal their gold. A manic puppet fleeing the hounds of hell in the chaos between magic ‘warrens’ that wizards draw their power from.

The overarching plot of Gardens of the Moon might well be summed up as something like “to hell with it, the characters said. Let’s just go ahead and see what happens”.

Gardens of the Moon is complete, sprawling, glorious, hilarious chaos.

Having said all that, there are several glaring problems with the book, which I attribute to Erikson’s relative youth as a writer when Gardens of the Moon was put together (he has stated publicly, if I recall correctly, that it was the most difficult book for him to write, and he learned a lot from the process).

For starters, most of the characters in the book are fairly thinly sketched out, and suffer from quite unrealistic motivations that make the plot somewhat unrealistic.

Why Whiskeyjack and the Bridgeburners, for example, don’t simply desert the Malazan Empire’s army … I don’t know. What several gods like Oponn are really trying to achieve … isn’t made clear. The same could be said for Captain Ganoes Paran, the mage Tattersail, Toc the Younger, and more.

Frankly, Erikson threw too many characters in Gardens of the Moon for many of them to have the sort of development that they really need, with the possible exception of Kruppe – whose mysterious nature just intrigues me beyond belief.

This problem of character development means the plot suffers at times in terms of believability. And there are other problems with that aspect of the book as well … Erikson overuses the classic way that many fantasy authors escape thorny plot construction problems. Just use a fairly unexplained magic system to overcome any difficult circumstance!

At far too many times in Gardens of the Moon, just as something difficult has to be resolved in the plot, Erikson throws in a powerful magic effect to bring things back on track.

It’s a cheap stunt, and fantasy authors in general have a lot to learn from series like Mistborn. Magic systems must be limited and work according to rules (even if the reader doesn’t know all the rules) to retain reader belief in them. Otherwise the plot structure sometimes becomes unbelievable because elements in it are not bound by rules.

The final problem with the book is perhaps that Erikson leaves his readers hanging in so many areas. Yes, we do achieve plot closure with many characters … but there are just so many secrets and understandings about the world Erikson has created that he doesn’t do anything to wrap up by the end of Gardens of the Moon. I can only hope and pray that some of the mysteries unveiled in Gardens of the Moon are explained in the other books in the series.

All in all, Gardens of the Moon is a remarkable book and a must-read for the more advanced fantasy fans amongst us. Ten years ago, its publication heralded the birth of a fantastic new epic series in the Malazan Book of the Fallen.

But it’s a flawed novel. It’s not a masterpiece like Assassin’s Apprentice or The Eye of the World that will appeal to everyone. Instead, it’s an breath-taking experiment in fantasy – perhaps along the same line of power as R. Scott Bakker’s The Darkness That Comes Before, which we’re reading at the moment – that experienced fantasy readers will want to add to their collection and ponder deep into the night.

Erikson deserves his reputation. But there’s a reason that reputation has remained relatively confined to hardcore fantasy fans. If you’re reading Keeping the Door, you’re likely one of them. So go and buy a dog-eared copy of Gardens of the Moon and enjoy the glorious mess that it is.

Related posts:

1. Reviews praise McAuley’s Gardens of the Sun
2. Erikson won’t provide all the Malazan answers
3. The Darkest Road: Review

Mariposa, the latest novel by American science fiction author Greg Bear, went on sale last week, accompanied by a limited set of generally positive reviews.

Bear is best known among fans for books like 1985’s Eon and 1987’s The Forge of God, although he has written a variety of other novels, including fantasy books, Star Trek books, and in general has diversified out of the hard science fiction sub-category he mainly wrote in in the 1980’s.

Mariposa pictures an America which has been driven to near bankruptcy by crushing foreign debt. But there is one success story – the Talos Corporation, which trains soldiers and provides logistics and troops for the US Government. But the company’s end goals are somewhat more nefarious – the destruction of the government itself. From the book’s blurb:

“Three FBI agents are all that stands between Talos’s CEO Axel Price and the subversion of our nation. Fouad Al-Husam is working undercover in Lion City, Texas, on the Talos Campus—but he may have just overplayed his hand. Agent William Griffin will engage in a desperate diversion to try to rescue Al-Husam, and the top-secret information he literally carries in his blood.

Rebecca Rose is called into action to partner with an unlikely hero: Nathan Trace, one of a team of four who created and programmed the thinking machines that are about to help Axel Price in his plans for domination.

Trace and his colleagues were caught up in a violent incident in the Middle East several years ago, and experienced Post-Traumatic Stress disorder. All of them were forcibly enrolled in a treatment program sponsored by Talos Corporation, code-named Mariposa—which supposedly cured their PTSD.

But now they are beginning to notice unexpected side effects. The Mariposa subjects are being liberated from nearly all human emotions and concerns—and all mental limits—to become brilliant sociopaths. They are out of control and they must die.”

Publisher’s Weekly has given the book a positive review, stating that Bear “keeps everything whizzing right along to the slam-bang conclusion”, and an Amazon reviewer noted that the underlying technology in the book was “effortlessly interwoven into the fast-paced, never decelerating story line”.

The book is a follow-up to Bear’s 2005 novel Quantico. Bear’s site notes that Vanguard Press had already gone to press for a second printing of the book – before it was released – which could be an indicator of demand.

Commentary
I’ve read quite a few Greg Bear books (from The Way and The Forge of God series), and while Bear is a competent writer, I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend him as an amazing one.

He’s the kind of writer you won’t mind finding tucked away in the science fiction & fantasy corner of your local bookshop when you stop in there on holidays and need a meaty read. But he’s not the kind of writer you’ll remember for the rest of your life as someone who blew your mind.

Article by Renai LeMay

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American science fiction master Kim Stanley Robinson has slammed the US Republican Party’s attitude towards climate change, describing it as “like the Catholic Church denying the Earth went around the sun in Galileo’s time”.

57-year-old Robinson is best known for his Mars trilogy, but has also written a number of other books, including his recent Science in the Capital series, which explores the consequences of global warming.

The author’s comments came in a new interview published as part of the re-publication of Robinson’s novella Lucky Strike, being published as part of PM Press’s Outspoken Authors series. Robinson says the Republicans are going to crawl away from their climate policy “mistake” later and pretend it never happened. And it’s a dangerous moment on the world stage in general:

“What’s been set up and is playing out now is a huge world historical battle between science and capitalism. Science is insisting more emphatically every day that this is a real and present danger. Capitalism is saying it isn’t, because if it were true it would mean more government control of economies, more social justice (as a climate stabilization technique) and so on.

These are the two big players in our civilization, so I say, be aware, watch the heavyweights go at it, and back science every chance you get. I speak to all fellow leftists around the world: science is now a leftism, and thank God; but capitalism is very, very strong. So it’s a dangerous moment. People who like their history dramatic and non-utopian should be pleased.”

The full interview is available at Shareable.net. Image by AllyUnion.

Commentary
I kind of know how Kim Stanley Robinson feels – in Australia, our conservative party, a coalition of the Liberal and National parties, has similar climate change denial problems.

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Australian fantasy author Karen Miller has finished The Reluctant Mage, the next book in her Fisherman’s Children series, which is the continuation of her Kingmaker, Kingbreaker series commenced with The Innocent Mage.

“Shit. I did it. I can’t believe it,” wrote Miller on her LiveJournal page this week. “Well, you know, not done done. It’s up for a rewrite next, after I’ve rewritten Siege. But it’s done, it’s a book, it’s a lot of words with more to come. It’ll end up about the same length or a smidgin longer than Prodigal Mage. But that story is told now. And I think I’m reasonably happy.”

Miller said she had written five novels this year. She noted there were times she had “seriously doubted” she could do it. And she has another two to rewrite before 2010 kicks off. “That’s not a problem. Rewriting is playtime. Rewriting is the reward for the utter agony that is the first draft,” she said.

The Reluctant Mage clocked in at 131,909 words. The book is slated to be published in 2010.

The achievement was celebrated by fans on her site. “Congratulations on reaching the end!” wrote one. “Your determination and output are utterly inspiring (and quite scary at the same time). Hope you manage to get a decent rest now before starting on those rewrites.”

Commentary
Keeping the Door handed Miller a fairly negative review of her last book, The Prodigal Mage. At the time, we wrote:

“The book is a monument to one of the most tempting traps that an author can fall into: to focus so heavily on developing their characters and their interactions that they neglect to situate those characters in an interesting and complex world and with a plot that gradually reveals its twists and turns.”

There are arguments on both sides about Miller’s work. After posting the review, we received several comments from readers that expressed how much they loved The Prodigal Mage. “I loved the Prodigal Mage and while there isn’t as much action in this book as in the others to me it is a taster of things to come,” wrote one.

Other reviewers, such as The Mad Hatter, have described the book as a “fantastic read overall”.

But I have been following Miller’s LiveJournal posts updating fans with her progress on The Reluctant Mage over the past couple of months, and I feel they have given me some insight into what one of the problems might be with Miller’s style.

That problem seems to be that she writes so goddamn fast!

It was only on November 12 (4 days ago) that Miller still had some 30,000 words to write on The Reluctant Mage. Three days later, she had finished the book.

Something about that just strikes me as wrong. 30,000 words … in three days? That’s 10,000 words a day! Even assuming that Miller had done all the planning in the world before the commencement of writing The Reluctant Mage, that is still a phenomenal amount per day.

The reason I know this, is that as a professional journalist I have often been called upon to write a lot of copy per day. But even on my most hectic, insane, 10 hour days, I couldn’t write more than about 4,000 words per day. Nobody in our office could. The fact that Miller is doing so makes me really wonder if it is truly quality writing that she is putting out, or whether she is racing through the writing process too fast, without stopping to consider it all.

Article by Renai LeMay

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1. The Prodigal Mage: Review
2. Are science fiction/fantasy writers insane?
3. Katherine Kerr finishes Deverry series

The Twilight series has sold over 70 million copies worldwide, according to Wikipedia, and is being made into a film series, with audiences enthralled by the love story between American teen Bella and Edward Cullen, a former human who was transformed into a vampire.

In the interview Meyer said she started writing Twilight after having a vivid dream which became chapter 13 of the first book in the series. The scene is the one where Bella and Edward are in the woods and she reveals she knows he is a vampire.

“I just wanted to remember it so badly, that’s why I started writing it down,” she said — not because she initially knew it was going to become a novel.

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Fantasy author George R. R. Martin has told his UK publisher he might hand over A Dance with Dragons, the long-awaited next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, “soon”.

Writing on her own site, Jane Johnson, fiction publishing director for the HarperCollins Voyager imprint in the UK, said:

“And finally, yesterday I got to spend some time with the legendary George RR Martin, over in the UK to visit the sets where HBO are filming the pilot episode of A GAME OF THRONES, which could be the finest ever tv fantasy epic.

We have his superb anthology tribute to Jack Vance out this month: the signing queues went round and round the block in Belfast, Dublin and London’s Forbidden Planet. Oddly, in that strange synchronicity which happens so frequently in my life, George flew out of London for Marrakech this morning, to see the desert and Dothraki scenes being filmed in and around Ouarzazate.

The really exciting news, other than the potential HBO series, is that we might get the long-awaited DANCE OF DRAGONS soon. I cannot wait.”

It is common for fans of the series, one of the major fantasy works currently ongoing, to complain about the length of time taken by Martin to write each new book. Although the first three in the series were published after intervals of about two years each, according to Wikipedia, the fourth book took a little longer; A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 after a five-year writing stint by Martin.

In October Martin revealed he had written more than 1,100 pages in the book. It was previously expected the book would be ready for editing by October or November this year.

Commentary
I have pretty much given up waiting for this one :) A Dance with Dragons will be ready when it is ready, and that’s about all I’m expecting.

(via Westeros.org and Tower of the Hand)

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3. New Feist Riftwar book almost out

Raymond E. Feist fans are only a short time away from stepping back into the fantasy world of Midkemia, with the author’s new book At the Gates of Darkness due out in some areas in early January 2010.

The book continues the epic Riftwar Cycle, which now spans several dozen volumes. Feist has a strong track record of publishing a new book in the series almost every year, stretching back to the fan favourite Magician in 1982.

At the Gates of Darkness is the second book in the Demonwar Saga arc, after 2009’s Rides a Dread Legion. Its blurb is as follows:

“Recent events have shocked and devastated the Conclave of Shadows; the discovery of the Demon horde that is following the elven invaders of Midkemia; the rise of the mad magician Belasco, and the personal cost paid by Pug and his family.

But grieving for lost loved-ones must wait. The followers of the Demon prince have almost succeeded in bringing him through the dimensions. The Conclave must regroup and find a way to meet the approaching evil, whilst trying to stop civil war from destroying Triagia before the demon horde even arrives.”

The book was first announced in February 2008, and Amazon has it shipping in April 2010, but Feist’s official Crydee site has recently updated the UK/AU/NZ cover art for the book and listed the Australia and New Zealand dates, at least, to New Year’s Day (January 1), 2010.

Commentary
Oh god. Is Feist STILL writing this thing?

Like many fantasy fans, I hopped off the Feist train many moons ago, in fact as far back as 1998’s Shards of a Broken Crown. I can’t exactly remember what precisely was happening in the seires at that point, so I really can’t situate At the Gates of Darkness in terms of current plot or what’s happening with the characters.

It’s not that Feist is a bad writer. In fact, quite the opposite: he’s arguably one of the fantasy greats. However, I couldn’t continue to read his books, because it seemed to me that the same character archetypes and plot points kept on coming up again and again. It got boring after a while.

This seems to be a recurring problem with writers who pump out a book every year. Sure, the books might have a steady following of fans, and bring in the dollars, but are they really that good? Normally not. Normally it takes a bit longer than a year to put together a really interesting work of art in the genre. Witness how long it takes the likes of Janny Wurts or George R. R. Martin to put out their books. And they are considered amongst the grand masters.

I would be interested, however, to hear from any Feist fans out there who are still reading the Riftwar Cycle. Is it worth persevering through? Does Feist return to his form later on?

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Sara Douglass

Australian fantasy author Sara Douglass has revealed she is planning to write one more “no holds barred” fantasy novel, as she struggles with the aftermath of cancer, but the author is not sure what the future holds after that.

On November 23rd 2008, Douglass, the author – best known for her Axis Trilogy and Warfarer Redemption series – revealed she had been diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancaer, for which she was being treated for with major surgery and chemotherapy.

In May Douglass announced that she had finished all of her treatment, and her cancer was in remission. “I am back to trying to live a more normal life. Both cancer, surgery and 6 months of chemotherapy really knocked me about. I’m concentrating now on regaining strength and fitness,” she wrote. And in July the author again said her health was continuing to improve.

This week, posting on the blog of publisher Voyager, Douglass wrote that one of the things that would change in her post-cancer life was her writing. There is one more book to come in her DarkGlass Mountain trilogy, The Infinity Gate, which is due to be published in May 2010. Douglass writes:

“After that, there will be one more fantasy book, The Devil’s Diadem. I signed HarperCollin’s offer memo for this last week (really Stephanie, it is in the post!). There’s always been a fantasy book I really, really wanted to write … and for various reasons I never got around to it. The Devil’s Diadem is it.

So this book will be one for me, no holds barred, full on fun, everything I always wanted to put into a fantasy novel but never did as I was too busy second guessing myself as to what everyone else wanted. I am loving writing it. Should be out in 2011.”

After that, Douglass added, she is not sure what next, but will be updating readers through her Nonsuch Kitchen Gardens blog, where this week she wrote: “This will likely be my final foray into fantasy – I seriously doubt I will ever write another fantasy novel. As so often happens, when you are faced with a life-threatening situation, your priorities change, and I am afraid that fantasy is part of the ‘out-the-door’ changes.”

The response from fans on her blog to Douglass’ story has been overwhelmingly positive. “I was so very sad to hear your Fantasy writing days are coming to a close, your books have given me years of pleasure, I can’t wait for the last Darkglass Mountain to be released & then will be waiting for the new book but it will be tinged with sadness as there will be no more,” wrote one, a post representative of other sentiments.

Commentary
Like other readers, I feel both happy and excited that Douglass feels free enough to write a “no holds barred” novel – it sounds like it could possibly be one of the fullest expressions of her art form if it goes well. And I certainly expect her writing power to have increased after coming through the extremely harsh experience that cancer must be.

However I also feel sad if it truly is the case that Douglass will stop writing fantasy books after that last novel … she is one of Australia’s greatest fantasy authors, not to mention one of the most in-demand fantasy authors around the globe. Her books can be found in virtually every bookstore with a decent fantasy section, and many people I know have praised them.

I can only wish the best for this author who has given the fantasy scene so much. And hope that she makes a complete and full recovery and does whatever she needs to in life that will deliver her happiness and fulfilment.

No related posts.

Note: Many US readers haven’t finished reading The Quiet War as it came out internationally in 2008 but only debuted in the US this year. Some spoilers for The Quiet War may appear in this article.

Paul McAuley’s new book Gardens of the Sun has started to garner positive reviews as readers approve of the conclusion to the 2008 novel The Quiet War by the British science fiction writer.

The Quiet War focused on the war between different branches of humans who live separately on Earth and on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, with the latter having genetically modified themselves and moved away from the Earth norm.

According to its blurb, however, that war is over in Gardens of the Sun:

The Quiet War is over. The city states of the moons of Jupiter and Saturn have fallen to the Three Powers Alliance of Greater Brazil, the European Union and the Pacific Community. A century of enlightenment, rational utopianism and exploration of new ways of being human has fallen dark.

Outers are herded into prison camps and forced to collaborate in the systematic plundering of their great archives of scientific and technical knowledge, while Earth’s forces loot their cities, settlements and ships, and plan a final solution to the ‘Outer problem’.